The NHL announced tonight that they will be fining the New Jersey Devils $3 million and forcing them to forfeit their 3rd round draft pick in 2011 and a first round pick in one of the next four drafts as punishment for circumventing the league’s salary cap on the original deal to Ilya Kovalchuk.

According to TSN, the Devils get to pick which year they want to give up their pick, and have to notify the League the day following the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals of that particular year.

There had been bad deals before this one; Hossa, Pronger and Savard come into mind; but Kovalchuk’s original 17 year deal was an absolute joke. The chances of Kovalchuk playing well into his 40’s are about as good as Toronto winning the Cup. While I obviously disagree with what they did, I think the penalty is pretty damn harsh considering these other teams have been charged with nothing to date.

Take this into consideration; with this fine, in order trade for and to keep Kovalchuk this season, the Devils have now given up:

Niclas Bergfors

Johnny Oduya

prospect Patrice Cormier

1st & 2nd round pick in 2010

$3 million fine

another 1st round pick

3rd round pick in 2011

AND they are now likely going to have to dump a contract in order to fit under the cap.

According to my favorite HockeyCentral host, Darren Millard, the Atlanta Thrashers offered Colby Armstrong a last minute deal he has decided to test free agency for the first time in his career. Armstrong made $2.4 million last season, but after his lowest point total in his career, it might be difficult to justify an upgrade. If he comes in around $2 million there should be a lot of takers for the fifth year pro.

Which team doesn’t need a physical winger that has the potential to get 40 points? Continue reading →

Wow. Can you imagine Byfuglien and Kane together in a few years. Both those picks are NJ’s that came over in the Kovalchuk deal. The Hawks drop $5.3 million off their roster in losing Buff and Sopel’s contracts. Eager is a RFA, so he will have to be re-signed by Atlanta. They add on Reasoner’s $1.15 million for next season only.

Atlanta just got a lot meaner and Chicago’s wallets just got a lot lighter.

Jaroslav Halak has been traded to the St. Louis Blues for Lars Eller and Ian Schultz. There is obviously something going on behind the scenes here because this is a pretty uneven deal in favour of the Blues. St. Louis gets the MVP of the Playoffs until his departure for yes, a great prospect in Lars Eller and power forward with little upside.

The report is that there were no contract talks between Halak and the Blues before the deal, so he could technically not even sign there. But still, I would have expected AT LEAST one roster player from a Blues team that has a ton of offensive talent to part with. Instead, the Habs are sticking with their golden boy Price and the GMs in the Northeast Division are left having a texting circle jerk about how many goals they will score this year.